i choose you
by UnwieldyInk
Summary: For SolangeloWeek day 1, Sun/Moon! A little ficlet about some kids bonding over pokemon :')


Will had never had anything in common with Nico di Angelo, once, in his life.

He'd known of the kid since middle school, when Nico showed up out of the blue on the first day of seventh grade. Nico didn't really make any efforts to talk to anyone, so no one really made any efforts back. It wasn't that hard to believe that the kid who'd spent basically all of 8th grade living in a _My Chemical Romance_ t-shirt just wanted to be left alone. Will had never talked to him, had never had any classes with him, and had _definitely_ never shared any interests with him.

Or at least, that was what Will had thought for the past four and a half years. But he supposed there was a first time for everything, because here he was, watching Nico di Angelo fiddle around on a black 3ds.

(Of course he had the black one.)

Will hadn't noticed at first when Nico slipped into the seat opposite him, right across the aisle. But school trips were never particularly exciting, and after five or so hours on a bus filled with a jumble of band, orchestra, and chorus kids, Will was b-o-r-e-d. His eyes started to wander, and what did they land on but, of course, Nico's little handheld screen. Will strained to see what game Nico was playing, just out of curiosity, and when he realized what it was, a smile broke out over his face. Pokemon. Thank god, someone with taste.

Somehow, none of Will's friends liked pokemon. You would think that out of a group of obnoxious teenagers growing up in the 2010s, there'd be at least a couple Pokemon nerds, but nope. Just Will. And he swore, if he had to play one more round of Smash, Will was going to lose it.

The point was that Will was excited to find someone else who enjoyed the same thing he did, even if it came from an unlikely source. He fumbled around in his bag to dig out his own 3ds (which was not black, for the record: it was blue), and then slipped out of his seat, ignoring the weird look he earned from his seatmate, Lou Ellen. Luckily, the seat next to Nico was one of the few on the bus still open, so Will could slide in. Nico looked up, startled, and angled his screen away from Will.

"Hi, Will started. "I didn't realize you were in band."

"Orchestra," Nico replied suspiciously. His eyes darted between Will and Lou Ellen in the other seat.

"I'm in Chorus," Will said.

"Of course you are." Was it just Will, or did the corner of Nico's mouth twitch up a little?

Nico focused back on Will, his trademark scowl taking over his face again. "Sorry," he said, "but why are you here?"

Will held up his 3ds. "You were playing Pokemon." It suddenly hit Will that he had flown into this social interaction with no further plan. "I, uh… thought that was cool?"

Luckily for Will, Nico's interest seemed piqued. "I'm on Moon right now," he said.

"I've got Sun!" Will powered up his handheld. "Are you shiny hunting?"

"Yeah." Nico glanced away. "It passes the time, y'know."

Will shook his head. "I never had the patience for that. I don't understand how you people do it."

"Well, it's not like you just stare at your screen all that time. You multitask." Nico tapped the earbud nestled the ear opposite to Will. "Honestly, I can't even remember what else there is to do in these games besides shiny hunt."

"I like competitive. Like, battling," Will admitted. Nico raised one eyebrow.

"Oh, competitive is terrifying. Hate it."

So maybe they didn't quite share a hobby after all. Oh, well. It was a start.

.

Will had almost five hundred hours clocked on his copy of Pokemon Sun.

Since the band trip, he'd started hanging out with Nico often. And as the only other Pokemon nerd Will knew, Nico soon became Will's designated Pokemon friend. Most of the time, whenever they hung out, they just lounged around and played. Nico had even convinced Will to try shiny hunting.

"You can start out with method," Nico had told him. "And we'll work you up to full odds."

Will rolled his eyes. "Don't be a shiny purist. Full odds just wastes time, for the exact same result."

Nico _tsk_ed. "Spoken like a true non-shiny hunter."

Will pushed playfully at Nico's head. "Oh, shut up!"

As it turned out, though, they really did have more in common than Will expected. They both loved music, for one. A couple times, when Will came over, Nico pulled out the cello leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, and let Will try to play it. Will still couldn't get Nico to sing, but he'd managed to teach him a few songs on guitar.

It wasn't just their hobbies, though. Nico was maybe the only one of Will's friends actually willing to just sit and listen to Will rant whenever he had a bad day. Nico always had some topic on his mind that Will on his own had never found very interesting, but that Nico somehow made fascinating. Even Nico's deadpan style of humor was actually kind of hilarious, once Will started trying to understand it.

"I don't get how you hang around him so much," Cecil told Will one day at lunch. "Doesn't his mopey emo thing ever get you down?"

Will shrugged. "He's not so bad once you get to know him."

"You mean he just dresses like that for fun?" Cecil shook his head. "Wack."

Will laughed.

.

Nico was grinning when he opened the door.

"Did you see it?" He asked as he led Will up the stairs toward his room. His eyes were shining.

"See what?"

Nico plucked his phone up from off of his bed, turning to hold it up for Will to see. It was a Youtube video. "Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon!"

Oh, this friendship was going to go far. Will could already see.


End file.
